Sunday, July 02, 2017

Unburdening the hungover mind grapes of a handful of generally irrelevant but somewhat timely thoughts, GTB-style.

A couple of days ago, baseball writer Rob Neyer retweeted a comment about the animated comedy Ratatouille:

I hadn't really considered his point, but after pondering it, yeah, I'm down with that. It's a fantastic little film, visually as well as narratively. If you haven't seen it, or if your kids haven't, please rectify that.

The new U.S. Men's National Team kits might be my favorite of all time. They're sharp as hell. You can get one for a cool $154.99 via ussoccerstore.com, just in case you're looking for a gift for me. I wear a medium.

The good guys played pretty well in them yesterday, too, as a relatively inexperienced American side put on an attractive footballing display in a 2-1 win over Ghana. The 2017 Gold Cup starts Friday, and the Ghana friendly has this observer optimistic about the Yanks' fortunes.

If you're looking for a reason to question your Christian faith, may I recommend Reza Aslan's Zealot. It's a painstakingly-researched history of Jesus of Nazareth's life and the emergence of Christianity. Dave couldn't make it through the book, so I'm little bit nervous that I won't finish the journey, but I've read enough to be fascinated.

Speaking of soccer kits, if you want to know what my 13 year-old looks like, check out the kid on the right, modeling our Club's new unis. She looks a lot fiercer than she plays. I'm kinda ambivalent about the white and red jerseys, if we're being honest.

And finally, as the deluge of public policy outrages continues apace, we note with some dismay Florida's new law allowing any resident of the state to challenge what kids are taught in science classes. Or, more accurately, implementing a process to facilitate such challenges by anyone, regardless of whether they are the parent of guardian of a student in the public system. The continuing assault on expertise can't be anything but a negative.

One can see the contours of a somewhat dystopian future where red states become increasingly hostile to science, while blue state residents double down on the value of experts across fields, exacerbating the economic and attitudinal divide that plagues our wobbling nation.

On that happy note, hope you and yours have a glorious Independence Day.

16 comments:

Speaking of dystopia, the President of the Untied States of America just twat some old pro wrestling footage of himself clothes lining someone who had the CNN logo Photoshopped over their face with the hashtags #FraudNewsCNN and #FNN. MODERN DAY PRESIDENTIAL indeed.

Zealot is a good read. The NY Times books review has a good article on it as well. Really Interesting when read together.

DJT is just a bad President. Whether you like his stated goals or not, at this point there is no arguing that he is a good chief executive in a representative republic. He has no ability to achieve his desired outcome unless he is in complete autonomous control. The man ran casinos and somehow lost money.

It's just sad to see him fiddle while the country has so many real burning issues.

According to Gallup, 38% of Americans believe in creationism; it's trending downward but still a big number, considering... you know. That's enough voters to swing an election and keep science at bay for another generation or two. Particularly when you read that another 38% believe man has evolved with God's guidance.

Yesterday I went to the wedding of two good friends. Second wedding for each, and it was a blended ceremony with elements of Judaism and Episcopal Christianity merged together to make each family happy. Seemed like progress to me.

in the spirit of independence day, i just cut the cord on cable and our home phone. downgraded to just verizon fios-- 44.99 a month, no weird fees, no set top box rental. they send a new router for free. i'm a bit hungover so it was a tough phone call, the initial rate was 84.99 but you have to mention optimum and their deal and then they give you different rates.

Question for someone who knows more about professional basketball than me: Is losing Paul Millsap that big of a deal? Seems to be a good dude, hustle player, good team guy but doesn't seem to be terribly athletic. It seems as if you're not getting too far with him as your best guy.

I like Millsap a lot. He's become a really reliable scorer. He's a plus defender/rebounder. His recently poor 3P shooting is concerning. Adding him to the young core of Denver is huge for that franchise. Watching him and Jokic play together will be fun.